A one-game lead in your division in late August is nothing to feel all that good about.

Of course, first place is ideal, but that lead could evaporate in any given 24-hour span. With over a month of baseball left to be played, no serious team can rest on their laurels.

If the 2013 regular season eventually concludes with the Red Sox sitting atop the AL East, then last week's west coast trip might be looked at as a turning point.

One week ago, the Red Sox were in a bit of a pickle.

They had lost two of three at home to a Yankees team that they had played well against all season.

The Red Sox had dropped seven of their previous 10 games, it looked like their league-leading offense was finally starting to slump, and a pitching staff that had withstood numerous injuries was finally starting to wilt right along with it.

A team that had played much worse on the road than at home was facing a six-game west coast trip that featured a head-to-head matchup against baseball's hottest team. The same team that featured a few former Red Sox who might have a bit of an axe to grind with their former squad.

Three in San Francisco, followed by three in Los Angeles against the Dodgers, only one game separating the Red Sox from the Rays. Add in a seemingly revitalized Yankees team, and any momentum the Red Sox did have, was probably negative.

A funny thing happened out west, though.

The Red Sox won. In fact, they won fairly convincingly.

Only a late-game bullpen implosion on Tuesday prevented Boston from sweeping the Giants. The Red Sox still managed to outscore San Fransico over the three games by a combined score of 21-4.

The Giants are the reigning World Series Champs, but they're in the midst of a very disappointing season. Surely, the red-hot Dodgers, a team that hadn't lost a series since they dropped two of three to the Pittsburgh Pirates in early June would be too much for the Red Sox to handle.

Nope, not a problem.

The Dodgers have now lost a three-game series. Those losses came at home, and the losses weren't even very close.

The Red Sox outscored the Dodgers 12-5 over three games. They got great starting pitching performances from all three of their starters. Jon Lackey, Jon Lester, and Jake Peavy were all exceptional, with Peavy's Sunday night complete game three-hitter standing out as the most dominant performance.

The Red Sox went 4-2 out west, returning home with that same slim, but very real, one-game, first-place cushion over Tampa Bay.

That wasn't how the week was supposed to turn out. Not with Tampa taking two of three from Baltimore, and then returning home to beat the Yankees two out of three times as well.

Let's just say that the Red Sox looked pretty good last week. Let's acknowledge that they were able to win without David Ortiz, who wasn't all that effective when he did play. Without the option of a DH, Ortiz played sparingly.

Mike Napoli, a player who just a few weeks ago was plummeting in the batting order and mired in a terrible slump, got hot again. He hit .455 last week, with one mammoth home run, 4 RBI and 3 runs scored.

Top prospect Xander Bogaerts was called up to the majors last Monday. He didn't play all that much for most of the week. But on Saturday, he got his first major league hit, followed by a two-hit performance the next night that included his first big-league RBI.

Dustin Pedroia was also mired in a post-All-Atar break slump. He spent his week out west hitting .435 with four doubles, a triple, and five runs scored.

Red Sox starters had a 1.17 ERA on the west coast trip, a stat which requires zero explanation of its importance.

The biggest short-coming of the trip out west were that the two games the Red Sox did lose were both winnable.

Tuesday night's walk-off loss to the Giants was one that the Red Sox really should have won. Staked to a 2-1 lead, relief pitcher Franklin Morales allowed the Giants to tie the game in the eighth, before setting up newly acquired Brayan Villarreal to walk in the winning run in the bottom of the ninth.

Friday night, the Red Sox offense was stymied by Ricky Nolasco, a good pitcher who pitched a great game against the Red Sox.

Even with those two frustrating losses, the trip out west has to be considered a very big success.

For those who tend to focus more on the American League, it is worth noting just how well the Dodgers had been playing.

On the morning of June 22, the Dodgers were 30-42, 9.5 games out of first place, sitting at the bottom of the AL West.

Following Friday night's 2-0 win, the Dodgers were 76-52, they had won four in a row, and had a 10.5-game lead over second place Arizona. The team was on a 46-10 run that included a 10-game winning streak.

Dodgers starting pitchers lead all of baseball with a 3.14 ERA and 18 shutouts .

Rookie outfielder Yasiel Puig has helped to kickstart an offense that is also powered by stars such as Adrian Gonzalez, Hanley Ramirez and Carl Crawford.

None of that mattered last weekend.

The Dodgers offense didn't look good. They looked desperate, hacking away at bad pitches, swinging far too early in the count and really helping the Red Sox starting pitchers along the way.

Puig made several base-running mistakes that led to double plays, and the players who surround the stars -- guys like Skip Schumaker, Nick Punto, Juan Uribe and Mark Ellis -- aren't good enough hitters to power the team when their best players aren't producing.

Perhaps the Dodgers will go on another dominant run and end up as the class of the National League.

Or maybe they could be a good team that played great baseball for a few months, and will now revert back into a far less threatening squad.

Friday, that label was being applied to the Red Sox, but Monday morning it has been shifted to the Dodgers. Now, the Red Sox once again appear to be one of baseball's best teams.

If they can keep it up through what remains of August and into September. Boston, and not L.A., will be the team to reckon with once the playoffs start. If that happens, remember last week's west coast trip, specifically the weekend series against L.A. It might turn out to be a pivotal point for both the Red Sox and the Dodgers.